Conventions and trade shows are opportunities for businesses, industries and other organizations to exchange information as well as promote and sell goods or services. At these events, exhibitors offer promotional literature and goods to potential customers to induce such customers to purchase their goods and/or services. Exhibitors at such events compete with one another for the attention of potential customers for potential sales. This is often accomplished by heightening marketing efforts and improving upon the appearance of exhibitors' booths or display areas at such events. Having a well designed booth that effectively catches the attention of potential customers is important to exhibitors and impacts an exhibitor's sales at such events.
Many exhibitors attend a multitude of trade shows and conventions throughout the year. Because many convention and trade show exhibitors travel to multiple events each year, many purchase their own display materials and move them from one event to another. Some exhibitors own their own display booths which must be assembled and disassembled at each event. Such booths enable the exhibitor to design the display ahead of time. Most booths or display materials must be placed in separate shipping containers and shipped to the location of a particular event. Once the containers arrive, the event personnel typically deliver the containers to the exhibitor at an assigned display area. Then, the exhibitors assemble the display booth, usually with the aid of the event personnel. Such an arrangement is extremely time consuming because the assembly or disassembly of an exhibitor's display area is often dependent upon the event personnel employed to deliver the containers of display materials to event exhibitors and to assist exhibitors in assembling and disassembling the display areas. If the event personnel are understaffed, exhibitors are forced to wait for the event personnel to send or retrieve their shipping containers for their display booths and assist them with the assembly and disassembly.
Many events operate under a "first in, last out" rule wherein an exhibitor that is fortunate to have its containers delivered to the display area early for assembly, will most likely be one of the last exhibitors to receive the containers at the end of the event for disassembly. This arrangement is frustrating to exhibitors because many times an exhibitor is traveling from one event to another with little time to spare. If the event personnel deliver their containers and disassemble their display area late, that exhibitor may be late in arriving at the next event. Moreover, if the display materials are shipped to an event in a container, there is always the risk that the shipper will lose some or all of the contents of the container. When this happens, the exhibitor is without any display materials or even without a display booth. This can result in considerable lost sales opportunities. Moreover, if the contents of the container include one of a kind items, such as a demonstration model, these items may not be easily replaced.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have a self-contained display unit for use at trade shows and conventions where the display unit stores display items during shipping. Moreover, it would be desirable to have a display unit or booth that folds itself into its own shipping container. This would eliminate the need for exhibitors to depend upon the event personnel to deliver and retrieve their shipping containers. In addition, it would be beneficial to have a foldable display booth that can be folded and unfolded by a single person without substantial effort and without the need for many tools. This would also eliminate the need for assistance from event personnel or others to disassemble and assemble the display area.
At present there are some display structures that can to be assembled and disassembled from a plurality of separate parts and stored in a shipping container that is reconfigured from a portion of the display structure. U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,388 discloses a display booth having a plurality of elongated wall sections that fold to form an enclosure. A channel is removably fitted over the upper edge of the wall sections and a similar channel is removably fitted over the lower edges of the wall sections to secure and align the wall sections. The wall sections are secured to a display cabinet. The display booth may be disassembled by removing the channel pieces and wall sections. These pieces may be reconfigured to form an enclosure for the disassembled pans of the display booth and thus form a self-contained shipping crate for the entire booth.
There are other display devices that have some or no folding capability. U.S. Pat. No. 2,222,318 discloses a foldable case. The case has a front section hinged to a rear section along the top surface. When the front section is unfolded 180.degree. upward relative to the rear section, it rests on top of the rear section. U.S. Pat. No. 2,617,550 discloses a display device having a first box hingedly connected to a second box. The first box, or base, is hinged to the second box along the top front surface. The second box, when unfolded, moves 180.degree. upward relative to the first box so as to rest on top of the first box. The second box has a top section hinged thereto that moves 180.degree. upward relative to the second box to rest atop the second box.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,684,103 discloses a portable, but uncollapsible display exhibit. The device consists essentially of a back drop structured by various panels secured to each other and further consists of hinged shelves that have collapsible support structure located beneath the shelf. This type of a display device requires complete assembly and is packed and shipped in a separate container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,524 discloses a display device having a base and a top section. The top section has a top display section hinged to a top base. In a folded position, the top display section nests in an upside down position with the base section. The top base section is hinged to the base section of the display device. In an unfolded position, the top display section moves upwardly 180.degree. to be flush against the top base section and the top base section moves 90.degree. into a vertical position above the base. The display sections are designed to have lights mounted therein and translucent artwork mounted thereon so that the artwork is illuminated from within the top display sections. The base of the display device is designed to have a slide projector and slide carousel mounted therein so that the slides are projected onto a screen located at the front of the base.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,417,774 discloses a collapsible display booth having front and rear boxes. The front box consists of a front display sign and front display booth. The display device is unfolded by lifting the front sign up on two posts that rest within recesses within the booth portion of the front box. The rear box includes a base and display portion hinged thereto. When unfolded, the display portion of the rear box rotates upwardly 180.degree. to rest upon the base portion of the rear box. The front and rear boxes are joined by securing hinged doors of the front box to the rear box.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,775 discloses a display unit having a front display unit base and overhead display unit sign. The display device also includes a back drop. The display device is secured by supporting frames in spaced parallel position that are assembled behind the display device. The device is capable of being assembled and disassembled, but does not fold upon itself and must be shipped in a separate container.
In addition to the display devices described above, there are known portable containers having some display capability. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,749,577 discloses a container having a pair of doors on the front surface of the container. The doors are hinged to the side and open outwardly. Shelves are mounted to the interior surface of the doors so that when the doors are opened relative to the front surface of the container, they provide a display shelf. U.S. Pat. No. 1,826,102 discloses a portable container having doors that comprise the front surface of the container. The doors are hinged to the side sections of the container and open outwardly. A rack or series of shelves is fixedly mounted within the interior of the container and may be seen when the doors of the front surface are opened.
None of the display devices presently known completely and easily fold into a self-contained shipping container. Moreover, none of the known containers unfold into an attractive and effective display booth. None of the known shipping containers unfold completely so that there are no shipping container surfaces showing when the display booth is completely unfolded. Conversely, there are presently no known shipping containers capable of folding into a display booth where the display booth surfaces are completely hidden when the booth is completely folded.
Thus, there is a need for a display booth capable of folding into a self-contained shipping container.
There is a further need for a display booth that is easily assembled and disassembled.
There is still a further need for a foldable display booth that folds itself into a self-contained shipping container, wherein the surfaces of the shipping container are completely hidden when the booth is unfolded.
There is yet a further need for a foldable display booth that folds into a self-contained shipping container wherein the booth surfaces are hidden from the exterior when the booth is completely folded into the shipping container.
There is an even further need for a foldable display booth that folds into a self-contained shipping container having the capability to store display items within the container when folded.